Discoveries
by TitaniumBlossom
Summary: Two people find something amazing in the deserted world... Each other. M for chapter 5. Complete. Sequel now up.
1. Chapter 1

Discoveries.

By TitaniumBlossom

(_**Author's Note: Damn Minecraft Beta update. All of the servers are either down or are horribly buggy. Going to write this story in the meantime.)**_

She really needed a fishing pole. An entire settlement, built in 13 days, after countless days before wandering the world, and what she needed most was a fishing pole. During the nights, she had always boxed herself in with dirt, until she finally could create a house. Now that that was done, she needed a faster way of getting reliable food at night. Her farm would suffice in bursts, as a zone of her crops would mature, and she would harvest it, and then plan again.

The problem was inconsistency. The wheat would grow at an unequal pace. One day she would be feasting, the next few, going hungry.

She had crafted armor. A helmet, chest-piece, armored gauntlets or leggings, and boots. Each piece was heavy on her body, but seemed to reinforce her with a sort of confidence of strength. Now, making her way through the caverns she had found under her house, she came to the untamed zone.

She had never placed any torches on the other side of the heavy metal door, but she had a chest on her side of the door, where she kept her best tool of all: a diamond sword.

She had dug deep into the earth, dodging lava and deep pits, riding waterfalls and hewing stairs out of the sides of the shaft. And then, at the bottom of it all, diamond.

And now, the sword, a sharp, deadly, impenetrable killing machine. No longer would she have to listen to the hisses of spiders, the ruckus of skeletons and zombies. With 3 stacks of torches and 5 pieces of cooked bacon, she was in for the long haul.

With a sigh, she flipped the switch and the door creaked open, revealing a dark valley, stretching out for miles, a river cleaving it apart. She stepped forward, letting the door close behind her and pulling out her sword, throwing a few torches down at the entrance so that she could find it again. She continued, down the mountain, leaving a breadcrumb trail of torches.

Her insides suddenly clenched in fear at the sound of a groan. A zombie. Behind her.

She spun, sword extended, hitting the zombie right in its chest. It didn't stop. She attacked again, backing up to keep the bastard out of range, bringing the sword cleanly through its head. It tumbled over, leaving behind a feather.

Once again, she continued on her hike down the mountain to the river. There was the sound of a spider, and she rushed to it, seeing three of the buggers.

They saw her too, and rushed her all at once. It was her first time trying to kill one of the 8 legged beasts, because she had never ventured far enough at nighttime.

To start off, she attacked the first one with a swing that was poorly angled and sheared off the top of its body, skittering a bit off of the exoskeleton but damaging it heavily nonetheless. Another one rushed her, while the other one tried to recover, but she had the proverbial big guns, and stabbed the new assailant through its thorax, before slicing its head off, in a quick movement.

In the distance, she heard a skeleton clunk a bit, and a zombie answer with a groan.

She dodged the bite from another spider, rolling away, almost going down a hill but recovering.

She stood up and charged at the spider who had just attacked her. With a lunge, she got its head impaled, then pulled her sword out and forced her deadly blade into its chitinous thorax, ending it.

The wounded one seemed to have recovered, so she ran up to it and mangled it, putting it out of its misery.

She picked up the rest of the string, just in time for two skeletons.

Their ghastly faces leered at her as they tried to flank her, lining up parallel to one another, with her in the middle. They fired, and she ducked, and the arrows flew across and hit the opposing skeletons.

The two got into a fight, launching arrows at each other until one was dead and the other one was staggering about.

She shattered the skeleton with a strike, and its bones fell apart. She was getting tired, and she had enough string, but in the distance, she could see 5 zombies, right in her path back to home, so she decided she would head into the forest near the river.

The forest was uncharted land, and it stretched far into the distance. Long before, from a hidey hole in her mountain, she thought she had seen movement down there, but she was lonely, and her mind was tired, and she passed it off as a trick of a delusional mind, hoping for something.

And now, in the dark, as she placed torches, she felt an exhilaration as she went ever deeper, past trees old and new, into a land full of mystery and mist.

Of course, that was until a creeper blew up behind her, and she was flung headfirst into a tree. Her armor had been damaged heavily, but her sword was still intact. Her head swam and her vision grew dim... until she heard five zombies, who must have followed her from the entrance of her house.

Her eyes shot open, and she brought her sword up again, standing up and charging them.

The combat became routine. She could no longer move fast. Instead, she swung heavily at them, taking hits and giving them too, until the zombies were a bloody hacked up mess. Standing over their corpses, she ate two of her bacon... and then saw 10 skeletons, rushing through the crowded trunks of the forest.

She ran, following her torches, but she was too deep in the forest. The sun was rising, she could see through the leaves, but the trees were too shady. The skeletons were trying to advance through a small gap, so she took out her flint and steel, and started striking sparks at the leaves above her.

The trees caught on fire immeadiately. She stumbled away from the tree, still shaken from the creeper, and leaned against the side of a steep hill, as the fire spread relieved... Until the second creeper exploded behind her.

She was tossed forward violently, losing all of her armor, leaving her in torn an weathered blue shirt and worn jeans, still holding the diamond sword. She ate the rest of her bacon, but it turned out not to have been cooked fully, giving her only some of her health back. The rising sun was coming, but the fire wasn't moving nearly fast enough, and it was still quite a long while until the sun came up, and the skeletons were still coming at her.

Hurriedly, she rushed to a tree on fire and ducked behind it, peering around, until she heard the whoosh of an arrow behind her, and a figure rushed past her, bow in hand shooting at the skeletons. He was clad in the same jeans and weathered blue shirt, but had leather boots and a helmet, and was holding a bow.

She kept looking at him as he stopped and stood his ground, shooting at skeletons and taking many out, until one came from the trees on the side and shot him in the abdomen, and then, when he staggered, in his chest. Another arrow came whizzing out, but all the fire came from two sides, and at a slow pae.

_ Only two skeletons_. She reasoned. _I can take them out._ She snuck around the trees behind the skeleton that had surprised the archer, who was now laying on the ground, in considerable pain, judging from the blood and moans.

She surprised the flanker with two hits, and it shattered with a nice sound. The other skeleton had noticed her, and had started firing arrows across the clearing, but she did not falter. Instead, she stood up and charged the skeleton, with a "RAAAWR" and a stab to its body, followed by a kick into a hollow, where it shattered.

The fire raged on around her, and she could still hear the moans from the shot archer.

She rushed over to him, and picked him up, taking a closer look at him. He had pulled out the arrows, which had not pierced him deeply, but allowed him to bleed more.

He was surprisingly light, and was built like a feather, thin and wispy, with sinewy muscles the only mark of strength on him. His clothes were lightly camouflaged by leaves and daubs of green mud, as if he lived in the trees, and survived by hiding. He had nothing in his pack except his bow, 5 stacks of arrows, a lot of dirt and wood. This person, whoever he was, was about her age, but she didn't know what her actual age was, so she was going by appearance.

She opened her door and entered the caverns below her house. The sun rose behind her, a few minutes too late, and she continued through the naturally formed, torchlit pathways, passing her main shaft, which was locked behind a door because of how dangerous it was. Her storage room was next, but the many chests within had not been filled.

She opened another door, letting a pressure plate close it, and came to her enemy proof entry method- a waterfall. She jumped into it, and just swam up it, to her own special nook, where she lived and made things.

She lit up a furnace to fight the winter morning chill that was freezing her sodden form, and dropped the ever light archer on her bed, a cloth filled sack with a feather stuffed pillow.

She made some mushroom soup with her stash, and brought it over to the shivering archer.

She pushed a soup filled spoon to his mouth.

"Eat it." She commanded. "Its good for you."

The injured male frowned. "Hot. Too hot.", He gasped.

She forced the spoon in his mouth.

"Its freaking room temperature, you baby.", She admonished. "And anyway, Mushroom soup can't be hot, cause I didn't make it with a furnace."

She spooned some more soup and fed it to him.

"So... What's your name?", She asked.

"I don't have one. And you?", He asked

"You know, its the strangest thing. But I don't, either. I'll call you Archer, because you love bows so much, and you can-" She stopped, because after finishing the soup, Archer had fallen asleep.

She pulled the blanket up and tucked it around him. Food healed, but to really get rid of your wounds, you had to rest.

She was almost dead on her feet, but she didn't want to sleep on the hard stone floor, and the bed was taken, so she would have to either put her instincts behind her and sleep on the bed, or craft her own.

In the end, she slept on the bed, anyway, because she was so damn tired.

She slept through the day, and woke in the night still tired, but hungry, so she tried to stir herself. To her surprise, Archer had snuggled up right behind her, like a kitten, curled up and purring. (Except he was snoring.)

She lightly lifted his lithe arm off of herself and got up to the workbench, where she finally used that string to make a fishing rod.

Casting the line into the spring that was the source for the waterfall, she waited.

Soon, she had 5 smallish fish, which she chunked into the furnace to cook. The night was kind of cold, but the furnace made up for it, and she looked out of a wall that was actually made of glass, at the vast oceans that spread beyond, and the small islands that dotted it.

Her home was built into the side of the mountain, at its peak, and she had the view of a lifetime. All that space made her think.

_Why? Why did I just happen to meet a boy with all that space out there... And the movement, down in the forest... Was that him, this whole time._

She turned to look at him. Tall, tanned, scarred. She usually stayed in the mines all day, because she had a torchlit forest on the roof of her shelter that she could use for wood, and it was a lot safer inside. She was probably pale, not that she had looked in a mirror, and she didn't get into many fights, so she was pretty much featureless.

Her hair was black, she knew, from when she had cut it to keep it out of her way, and his was brown, and shorn short.

She had lain his bow on the bedside table, but he had already grasped it and was holding it like a teddy bear, in replacement for herself.

_The dangers of living out there... The constant danger of monsters. He lived a frightened life, scared of all the hazards. I have it easier. What if he leaves? If life in the mine becomes too boring... That would suck. How can I get him to stay?_

She looked at him again. Attractive, yes. But was she attractive?

_And anyway, what am I thinking? Seducing a random stranger? What if I get pregnant? In the middle of this wilderness... Even if he could provide for me, what guarantees he would? I don't even know him. _

_Might as well just let him leave if he wants to._

When the fish were done cooking, it was daytime. She took two of them and left the other 3 on the bedside table. She hefted her pickaxe and slipped it onto her back, as well as some dirt, keeping the torches she hadn't used with her.

_I spend most of my time mining... _She thought. _But look what I found just after going just a bit on the surface._


	2. Chapter 2

_**(Author's Note: I know you guys want a lemon, but let me add some bonding and non-intercourse sensuality before.**_

_**You know, just to set the mood. Or something like that.**_

_**Also, thanks for the few reviews that I got and the story alerts, favorites, etc. They remind me to work on this thing, and I'm really sorry I didn't get to this before. School's a real issue sometimes.)**_

?

When he opened his eyes, he immediately felt like closing them, shutting them tight, as the memories came back.

_Flaming forest...Home on fire... Treehouse no longer safe...Skeletons. I can take them on..._

_Damn it. One of those bastard's flanked me. Arrows in my gut. Armor stopped most of it._

_Okay now. Asleep. Food. Pain. Alright now. Dull ache._

He pulled himself up, trying to dredge up the shreds of memory that he knew he had.

He stretched, long arms straining out above his head, like a thin willow. He felt a few things crack in his back, the remnants of his wounds burning with pain. His bow and arrows lay with him, and he saw a stack of three fish close to him.

_Fish... I used to get that a lot... Before I lost my house in the fire... How did the forest catch on fire?_

His brow clenched in worry as he tried to focus.

_A girl. An actual human girl. Carried me... Must be strong._

He remembered.

_A name. Archer. My name is now Archer. Stupid mushroom soup. Made me giddy._ _And speaking of that, I'm still hungry._

Archer grabbed the baked fish, and chomped heavily on it. It was a bit overcooked and dry, but it was food, and he was thankful for it. With his basic needs out of the way, he found himself remembering what had happened. He was making a fishing pole with the string he had just got, when the sound of fire crinkling leaves interrupted him.

The fire had spread fast. His entire home was gone now, all of his things. All he had was his bow and his arrows. An Archer he was, from the first time he crafted a bow. His bow became his way of life.

After he first crafted the bow, he no longer cowered at night. He hunted his prey, slaughtered his enemies, and had a nice time while doing it. It had gone on for a long time, but nothing in this world seemed to last, least of all a wooden home built into the canopy of a tall forest.

But someone had to have started the fire. And he had an inkling of whom.

Not that he didn't have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Ignoring the fact that he wouldn't have been down there if his rescuer hadn't set a fire under his house, she had saved him, when she easily could have abandoned him and run off.

But she had burnt the product of his life, his impenetrable fortress above the world. That was the issue, because she canceled out the whole saving your life thing with the whole burn your home to the ground.

And far below him, down in the mines, _She_ was working, She of the golden hair, of the sharp green eyes, and the shining face. An angel, and an arsonist.

He kept his bow with him and poked around what must have been the living area of his savior.

The bed, softer than his hammock, (Which was now a pile of ashes.) was still nowhere near as comfortable for him as his old rope contraption. It lay near the entrance, but beyond the bed, workbenches, furnaces, and a few large chests were the only other furnishing, discounting the torches generously spread across the room.

Large windows, essentially walls, were the border between him and a very steep drop onto a rocky beach, but they had nice views, views of islands in the distance and towers created by this mysterious girl, always emerging from the mountains, never built on top.

He noticed that they were almost at the cloud line, with the clouds only feet above his current position. He had been higher than this, back when he wandered, but that had been a long time ago, and a very long way away, and he actually felt a sort of fear, deep in his self, that made him shiver when he looked down at the ground far below.

_Its probably a good idea to get down, _He thought. _Its going to take some time to get set up again._

He looked around for a ladder or some kind of staircase. The only thing remotely like that was behind an Iron door, and the steps behind it led up, instead of earthwards.

He turned to face the waterfall. A nice feature, really, but was it something more? An elevator?

Casting aside his doubts, he leapt into the waterfall, riding it down into large pool, almost a man made lake, and getting out, soaking wet. It wasn't as cold as the top floor, but it was still kind of chilly, and without his leather armor, he was definitely feeling it in his bones.

It had been so long since he had seen a living person. In fact, he couldn't remember anything since waking up on a sandy shore with nothing but the clothes on his back.

_He was not alone._ The thought raced around his brain, tingled in his extremities, made him shiver just a bit. He stumbled out of the lake and lay down on the smooth stone.

What could he do? How would he talk to her? How could he talk to her?

He could feel a burning within him, instincts urging to be satisfied. He had no idea what he could do, just questions, questions, questions, covering him, suffocating him.

His breath quickened, his heart beat, speeding up faster and faster, until finally, it all broke.

He screamed loudly, wildly, and louder than ever before. He could feel it echo in his head, and around the cave.

The slamming of a door interrupted him, and he looked up to see his savior come running.

She was toned, not skinny, but firm, with muscles that moved gracefully as she ran. Mining all day must have given her her form, and Archer could not help but notice her chest, hidden under her shirt but still hypnotizing for someone who had not something of that caliber in an immeasurable amount of time.

She slid to a crouched position over him.

"What's wrong?", She asked, concern apparent on her face.

He could not speak, now that he was truly conscious. Before, the words moved like syrup, sweet and slow, but now, there were so many words he wanted to say, he had no way how to say them.

"Hello.", He said, stupidly, a sheepish smile on his face.

"Hello", She said, with a smile of mirth. "I don't believe we've been formally introduced.", with the same autonomy he had held awkwardly before.

Archer laughed, almost insanely. He couldn't believe his luck. He wasn't the only one any more.

Realizing that his cackling was not providing the sense that he was all right, he stopped.

"My name is Archer", He said, responding from some long lost memory, some idea of how to talk

Then they were silent.

"I... don't know what... to say next...", She said. "Can you... make me a name... Like the one I made for you?"

"Miner", He said, with a sort of finality only attainable by those who haven't spoken in a conversation for very long times.

"Miner?" She asked. "Okay. Fine. Good. Nice. ." She stopped, realizing she had just repeated positive words instead of actually saying anything.

There was another pause.

"I'm going to mine. It is dangerous. Do you want to come?", She asked, realizing seconds too late that the fact that it was dangerous was not a good thing to mention, but it was not of any matter, because just a heartbeat later, she was surprised.

"Sure.", Archer said. He had nowhere left to go. Nothing to do.

She turned, and headed back the way she came, looking over her shoulder to see if Archer was coming.

Archer finally picked himself up and ran in her trail, as they worked through tight, paved tunnels that were lined with iron doors and torches.

Each one of them were unmarked, but all were full of something. Many of them were just chests or furnaces, but some led to gaping holes, dark and shadowed.

One, in particular caught his interest. It's entrance was lined with solid blocks of iron, and the area leading up to it was fenced and gated. Strange red blocks with horizontal white lines in the middle , labeled TNT, lay around the room, linked by a strange red powder which lay encrusted and ran through a hole high in the wall to a switch just outside the door's switch.

He held back, looking at the packages of TNT.

He heard her boots stop, then come closer.

"That goes to a very dangerous place. The TNT is to make a sand wall fall across it in case of skeletons. There are a lot in there. Too many for me. Not the first time, either. My first time here, some skeletons were lurking. I killed them, but I spent most of my supplies doing it. I was hurt, so I settled down. I've been developing here since.", Miner said.

Archer nodded, thinking about his arrival to the forest. It had been long ago, that was for sure. He had come in on boat, looking for a shelter from a tempest brewing out in the ocean, but he had settled, finding a nice, settled lifestyle to his liking, staying in the trees in the day, and hunting monsters and livestock in the night, invisible, undetectable.

He had always made excuses to himself like he was just stocking up for the next trip out, but something about this particular stretch of land just appealed to him in a way unattainable by anything else he had seen before.

And now he had nothing but his bow and his arrows, and the chance of love, something that he had never experienced before. And in his head, he made a decision to stay. They continued through the hallways, and he clung to Miner's heels as if she were a stray thread of light guiding him through the dark recesses of his mind.

(_**A/N: I'm sorry about not having it longer, but then again, I need to give you guys something, at least. I really am sorry for not continuing sooner with deeper content, but this is what I need to get off the table right now.)**_


	3. Chapter 3

Minecraft: Discoveries

Titanium Blossom

(Beta 1.3 looks nice. Also

.com/watch?v=tHeZcXF0Cms

Made me lol a bit. I don't know why. But it motivated me to write the next chap. Of course, you guys do too, so leave reviews and stuff like that when you feel like it.)

Chapter 3

"I'm making a portal.", She remarked, after a very uncomfortable period of silence. "With obsidian. Look.", she said, pointing past an opened door at a rectangle that was missing a block in its top.

"I need a dark black stone. It's very hard to find. Only deep near the water and lava when it mixes. I just haven't found any.", She continued. "Very hard to find..."

Archer watched as she trailed off and continued around another side corridor, down some stairs. It went in a winding pattern, down further and further, until it met a door. She absentmindedly hit the big switch and continued on, to a small room, illuminated liberally by torches, and almost empty except for a chest and a strange object on the floor that led off down a rough hewn set of large steps, like the stairs, except with tracks instead of steps.

Archer walked over to it and looked down the steep steps. Two metal rods were set parallel to each other, with wooden planks linking them in straight horizontal lines. Further down, they curved sharply and went out of sight. He almost considered following the tracks to see where they went, but behind him, Miner was standing expectantly.

He turned around. She was holding a metal cart. He could see little wheels on its sides, and almost immediately, he understood. Something at the back of his head said that it was all familiar anyway, but the thought amazed him.

Miner tossed the cart lightly onto the tracks. Almost immediately, the cart became heavy, and settled onto the tracks with a creak. Miner got in, cautiously, being careful not to move it.

"Get in. Behind me.", She said, less of a command than a statement. "Please.", she added as an afterthought.

Archer did as he was told, stepping lightly with his right foot. Once he was balanced, he lifted his other foot into the cart and sat, legs open wide, with Miner sitting in between them.

She wiggled back and forth, bumping up against Archer in some very interesting ways.

He exclaimed loudly as she did it far harder, almost landing in his lap directly.

"What?", He asked, surprised.

"To get the cart to move- back and forth. Like this- See. Just follow my pattern.", she said, punctuating each phrase with a wiggle.

Archer followed her lead quite awkwardly, wiggling forward, then backwards, following her pattern, bumping up against her back, making the cart go back and forth, just a bit, until finally...

The floor dropped out from under him. Or so it seemed. In reality, the cart had just started on a steep slope, going down. He felt his insides dance, and his stomach felt full of butterflies. None of this was helped when Miner lay back against him, the rear of her torso pressed almost completely up to the front of his. She let her head rest right under his, and Archer thought he could smell her hair, like flowers, except the perfumed kind, like a phantom smell that didn't really exist in his world. The slope lessened, and they leveled out, but they were still going fast. Archer thought he could see glimpses of torchlight, far down below, and he could see neat flight of staircases, stretching down into cavernous holes.

Just when he thought he was getting used to the speed, the cart slammed to a halt and crashed into a solid block of cobblestone. Miraculously, they both stayed in the cart, but he was on top of her and she had managed to turn face up, so now, he was looking her in the eyes, green as gems and smoldering with something he had no name for... but liked.

He was the first to move, awkwardly slipping out of the cart and standing up. Miner followed him, pulling a diamond pickaxe out of her pack and leading the way, along a winding, unpolished path that dropped and rose like the ocean, sometimes opening into deep holes, with a light glow near the bottom, or sometimes going up countless meters. After about 30 minutes of this, Miner stopped abruptly.

Archer started to say something, but Miner turned around urgently, her finger to her lips.

She scrambled to a side corridor, sliding into a crouch position, Archer dashed behind her.

"Two. One creeper, One skeleton. They haven't seen us, but the creeper is closer. They're in the way. I'll use the rod, and hook the skeleton. Kill the creeper."

They quickly switched spots and Archer drew his bow and notched an arrow, peeking around the corner. A creeper, a 6 foot tall column of compacted slime, with small feet that moved quickly, was probably the worst thing in Archer's world. Its only method of attack was exploding, and it was nearly silent. He had more than one close encounter with the explosive fiends, but the worst part of the creeper was their faces. Cavernous eyes, sagging mouths, horrified expressions, gasping in pained, sorrowful agony. But they had no feelings. The expressions stayed frozen. Every single standing monster came from some form of dead human. Archer shuddered to think what had caused a human to morph into an animated pile of stinking slime.

The creeper in question was turned around, and was an easy target. It wouldn't take more than five arrows. He leveled the bow at the creeper and let the arrow fly.

It whizzed like a bolt of lightning and stuck deep in the creeper's back, making it stumble a bit, slime reconstituting itself to continue moving. Archer pulled another arrow out of his quiver and shot again.

The creeper kept on coming. Archer jumped out of the corridor to draw the creeper out further, and let another arrow go. This time, the creeper showed its trouble continuing. It couldn't get its slime to stay formed and move at the same time with the three arrows at various points in its body.

At that point, Miner followed him out, holding her fishing rod aloft. The skeleton, moving up behind the Creeper, immediately shot at her. She dodged the arrow easily, by moving to the side. The skeleton shot another, and this time, she rolled to the right and cast her rod at the skeletal bowman. It caught somewhere in his rib cage, and she yanked the pile of bones to the ground with a powerful jerk, then drew her pickaxe and crushed its bones into dust, with powerful strikes.

She stood triumphantly, then heard an echoing "WATCH OUT! BEHIND YOU!). Her smile disappeared when she heard a second sound. A fuse burning, and then an explosion. She had lunged forward, over the pile of dust that was the skeleton, bringing the rod with her.

A deafening boom blew hot hair from behind her, making her hair wave in the air.

She turned around, and looked down at a wide expanse of lava, stretching out for much further than she had ever seen before. And right below her, an island of obsidian. Without so much as a word, she jumped down and started hacking at a block of obsidian that was adjacent to her. It fell apart, and she picked up the block that she had been looking all this time.

Before Archer could help her up, she made a dirt pile to climb up on and pulled herself over the edge of the hole. The obsidian block went into her pack, and she brought out her pickaxe.

"Okay, I'm ready to go back. Let me show you a shortcut I have.", She said, already staring down the side corridor they had hidden in for the ambush.

"So, what is a portal?", Archer asked, following behind her as they wandered through her clean cut tunnels deep beneath the earth.

She went up a ladder that extended up countless meters and answered while climbing. A bit sheepishly, Archer looked up at her as she climbed the stairs, trying hard not to imagine what were under her pants as they flexed above him each time she went up a rung.

She looked down. "Start climbing. A portal is something that leads to another world. No doubt it will be full of danger and treasure, because otherwise, what would be the reason for all the difficult components? Right?"

Archer who had started climbing and was trying not to look up, responded with a grunt. He certainly was remembering something from his distant past, because his head was hurting, and he could feel a thought frustratingly close. Then it hit him. A concept of romance. As ashamed that he was that it came at looking at a girl's rear for a few moments, it was a very deep change in his mind. To put it succinctly, he mind was telling him to "tap that", indeed as entirely base as it sounds.

His mind, however, was suggesting that he build up a relationship first, from some long lost social etiquette imprinted across the void that was his life before he woke up alone on a sandy shore, with nothing but his clothes and his hands, and a mind that only remembered imprints from the life he had lived before.

His brief moment of introspection was broken by his reaching the top of the ladder, and seeing the familiar pool beneath the waterfall. It was night outside, but he wasn't feeling tired. He and Miner went to the portal room and she placed the block that was the whole reason for the trip into the unexplored caverns. Then, pulling out a set of steel and flint, she dropped sparks that bursted into flames on the frame created by the looming obsidian structure.

A purple portal flashed into existence, and a strange sound emerged from it.

"Shall we?", Miner asked, and held her hand out. Archer stepped forward and took her hand, and they walked into the portal.

His vision warped and faded into a purple spiral. He could feel himself traveling a very long distance...


	4. Chapter 4

Discoveries: Chapter 4

By TitaniumBlossom

_(Writing minecraft fanfiction at 11:00 in the morning during Spring Break. I'm so messed up. :( I really should find more hobbies other than playing Minecraft and writing Minecraft stories.)_

When Miner came to, the air around them was hot and arid. Almost surely, there was a lot of lava in the area. The land beneath their feet was red like blood. She could only see a small area near her, because there was almost no light, except for the dim kind that was cast by the still-tumultuous portal. Next to her, Archer was looking around warily, his sharp features outlined in the poor light. He stood taller than her by just a bit, a few fingers or so, but that was all that she needed to feel safe near him.

His long fingers were poised artfully on his bow, and his quiver was uncapped, just in case he had to draw an arrow and fire.

Miner took her pickaxe and broke right through a ridge below her in one hit. It was a big mistake, because there was nothing below it and she had nothing between her and a long drop into lava. She intermediately lodged her pick into the stone next to the hole she had made.

"Help!", she wailed, but it was too late, because Archer was already there, his face furrowed with worry and a hand extended.

He stayed quiet, but his hand was there. She raised her hand and grasped his. Surprisingly, his small build belied a strength required to lift herself and her loaded pack up.

It dawned upon her that this was the first time that he had touched her consciously. She would have liked to say something like it gave her a zap or a jolt or some other cliché, but really, his hand grasping hers really gave her nothing but a sense of relief as she ascended from the hole.

When she was finally up and over, Archer slumped down, utterly spent. Miner couldn't help but feel warm inside at the sight of his curled up form. He had a certain animalistic warmth about him that made it far too easy to feel something whenever she looked upon him doing something. She could keep it under control. The world was far too dangerous to think about things like that. Especially when in this world, where she had a near death experience within 20 seconds of arriving.

And just as she thought about danger, a flaming ball crashed from the sky and exploded a patch where she would have been sitting, had she not rolled when she saw it coming. Following the projectile was something that she could best describe as a ghast. A strange monster, yelling and screaming like some unspeakable horror. The entire world down here, this entire Nether, was filled with the screams and groans of monsters.

The Ghast had dangling tentacles coming off of it, and it floated through the air like some deranged octopus, spitting exploding fireballs and screaming. Suddenly, five arrows shot up from next to her, and each added another puncture to the bloated gas sack that was known as the Ghast. It blew up one final time, leaving a heat wave.

"Damn.", Miner remarked. "It seems this world is more dangerous than the one we just left. Let's go"

She left, picking up the fragments dropped when entire blocks had been destroyed during the battle. She decided she would call the red stone Netherrack. It had a certain quality to it that bespoke of the strange nature of this land.

Miner walked out west from the portal, looking around very warily. This place was like an entirely new place, covered in shadow, blood red, with only the distant glow of lava below and the shimmer of something up high.

Soon, they were scaling up a hillside to get a closer look at a sparkle up high. She was running up the hillside so fast she didn't notice a strange hunched form in front of her. In fact, it wasn't until she almost tripped over it that she saw it, because the area was so dark.

The thing made strange groaning noises, and as it stood up straight, Miner saw that the thing had a golden sword, as well as a few compatriots nearby. It looked like a pig and a man combined, but its flesh was decayed and it shuffled about aimlessly like a zombie.

To her surprise, it didn't attack her, instead, it stood there.

"Don't kill it! It's harmless.", She announced at the sound of Archer's quiver clinking as he pulled an arrow."

"If you say so.", He replied, arrow still notched on his bow. She felt warm again. His voice delighted her. It was beautifully melodic, and she definitely could not get enough of it, probably because he didn't talk much. Even on the minecart, when she had attempted to get him to say something, he had said nothing, with her back pressed snugly into his front.

_Still_, Miner reflected as they continued past the zombie pigman, _I like the strong silent type._ _And in reality, what else do I have? The only person I've met in a long time happens to be someone that I truly am attracted to. When this is over, I'll try something, unless I'm tired. In which case, I'll sleep, then wake up, and then sleep again, and then try something, and then go back to sleep. Or something like that._

She closed the gap between the final few feet between her and the source of the sparkle, a nasty crystalized substance like the exoskeleton of a spider, that was strangely cold for something so bright.

Immediately, she smashed the blocks with powerful strikes from her pick, leaving nothing but dust. She threw down a torch and picked up the dust, which did not glow nearly as brightly as the block did. In her pack, she had filled about 9 cupfuls, and closed them within the cups, but her pack was nearly full with the Netherrack she had gotten before, and the rest of the Glowstone was far away, so she was guessing that they would have to go back soon, if not because of lack of space, then because of the danger here.

And just as she thought about danger, Archer yelled, "GHAST!"

Miner had had enough of this crap. She brought her fishing pole out and found the Ghast. It was far away, but she was mad as hell, and she wasn't going to take it anymore.

The bloated white flying bastard was coming in low, and she could see it charging up a gaseous fireball. It fired, but Miner used her fishing pole like a bat and knocked the ball back at the Ghast, then cast her pole so that it hooked in its leathery skin. She yanked hard, and the creature slammed into the floor, letting her rush in and stab the thing with her sword while it was being pelted with arrows. She jumped off and ran after one stab, diving when she heard the explosion behind her.

She looked at Archer, who was smiling sheepishly.

"What?", She asked.

"Your pants.", He replied, pointing.

She looked down.

"What?", she asked, not understanding.

"On the back...", he murmured. "Let's go back. You're far too exposed."

Horrified, but not wanting to appear desperate, she casually reached her hand to her rear, usually denim covered, but to her horror, she found nothing but her slightly ripped panties and bare skin. She felt her hand s around a bit more while walking, and discovered that the rip was fairly large and covered both sides of her pants, and that the missing piece had been truly ripped off.

When they finally got to the portal, she was really feeling the tiredness of the long day. She lazily closed the iron door and staggered out, to the pool and the waterfall that led up to her home.

Archer was behind her, which struck as more than a little suspicious, but she really could care less because each muscle in her body was more tired than the last, and her clothes were ripped for the umpteenth time. She had spares, but these were made only a week ago, and they usually lasted that long. Archer had her living so fast that her weeks were now worth two days of clothing.

She submerged under the water for a second, letting the ash and dirt slough off of her when she stood up.

Then she ascended the waterfall, and slumped down into her bed. She closed her eyes and waited for sleep, but was surprised by the sudden weight on her bed of Archer flopping down next to her, curling around her outside. She fell back to sleep though, thoroughly tired but sanguine, with the only other person in the world holding her in his arms.


	5. Chapter 5

Discoveries: Chapter 5

TitaniumBlossom

(Oh, look, writing lemon at 9:00 in the morning. I really have improved in the whole finding new hobbies department. Whatever. Also, Thanks to the quick reviewers. Its nice to have people remind to write stuff. Only one more chap to go, methinks. I'm not good with long stories.)

Miner woke up once in the half-dark of early morning. She was still tired, so she resolved to do something about Archer after another period of sleep. When her eyes opened again, she tried to lift herself up, but Archer's entire body was pressed up against her, and his arms were lightly holding her, but his...thing was pressed up against her rear, from below, and she could feel its hardness against her, which was definitely doing something to herself. Her temperature raised, a certain something in her pooled up, a tightening.

She got up, right away, shaking off Archer's feeble sleeping attempts to hold her in place. She looked back at him, and realized that her pant situation was not fixed. She had slept pantless in bed with a man. Shaking this off, she opened her chest and pulled a few bundles of cloth, and some lapis lazuli, putting the whole mess onto her workbench, she dyed the cloth and arranged it like a pair of jeans, and sewed it all together, giving her a new pair of pants. She put them on, and turned around to see Archer lying back on his elbows, smiling.

"That was quick.", He said, eyes twinkling. "I was kinda enjoying the new look, though"

She walked over to him, and leaned against a wall, facing towards him.

"I notice you chose my bed instead of yours.", She stated.

He gave a little noncommittal shrug, as if to say "Yeah. So?"

"Do you like me?", She asked.

Archer said nothing, but gave another kind of shrug like a "Yeah, whatever"

Miner stepped closer, onto the bed.

"Do you like me. As in like, like?", She asked, face close to his.

To her surprise, he moved his head forward and kissed her softly, and then pulled away.

"Is that sufficient?", He asked, smile gone, completely serious

"Ss-ssure", she stammered, getting off of the bed and picking up her pack. "I've got some stuff to do. Care to come with?"

Archer nodded, and Miner went to the door that enclosed a set of stairs that went up. She scaled them, going up to what she called the farm. Trees and rows of crops stood for far distances, alongside pens of animals.

"I need to check on my wheat."

"Your what?", He asked, incredulous.

"I'm growing wheat. For bread.", she answered.

"How did you get the seeds? I never could manage to find them. And more importantly, how did you keep this whole thing hidden from me? I was seriously living right next to you!", He asked, incredulous.

"The seeds were the easiest part. I plowed grass with a hoe, and I found a few clusters of seeds just lying there in the dirt. I planted them, put them next to water, and they grow by themselves. I just have to keep animals off of them, which is the hardest part, but I got fences around them too, and that lets me box the animals in.", she said. "To keep it hidden from monsters, I used trees on the edges, and also planted a forest on all areas of approach. I also roughened the edges to keep things from climbing up, like spiders."

"I never got around to the farm part. I hunt what I want, when I want it. I used to have it all in my house. You know, until it got burned down. By a certain somebody.", Archer said, punctuating the last sentence with a certain vehemence.

"Look, Archer, I'm sorry about that, but-", She started, but was broken off by Archer stepping closer.

"Seriously? You just destroy my life and say you're sorry? That doesn't really cut it, in my opinion."

"I saved your life, Archer.", Miner tried to reason. "I think that's worth more than your house."

"I wouldn't even have been outside of my house if you hadn't set the forest on fire. It really is your fault, but I forgive you anyway. I just want you to remember it, that's all."

"I'll remember. I got a fishing rod from it, though. And I found somebody else."

"And so did I. I guess that means something. How did you end up here?", Archer asked.

"I woke up a long time ago. It was sandy. I was on a beach. I had clothes. I wasn't hungry. I wasn't tired. But I was afraid. Terribly afraid. Of everything from the wide sea to the spacious land. I worked feverishly, beating my hands until they were bloody against trees, ripping logs apart with my bare hands to make tools, digging with a wooden spade in hardened ground. I piled dirt with my hands, packed it into place. I hit rock again and again with a wooden pick, the tool itself vibrating in my hands and jarring my nerves. And finally, I had made an enclosure. I spent the night listening to the sounds of monsters outside, thinking I was safe. Just as I thought it was safe, a spider climbed over the walls and pounced upon me, tearing across my stomach. If I hadn't kicked it off and broke through my fort, It would have ripped a hole in me and started eating my entrails. Then, a creeper waited outside. It blew up, and knocked me 10 feet. Another one came, and almost blew off my legs as I crawled away. And That's how my first day ended, with me bleeding, shellshocked, and crawling away from monsters who wanted to kill me and feast upon my body. As soon as I could walk, I beat a pig to death and ate its flesh raw in front of its brethren. I made a sword, armor from the hide of cows that I had beaten with a cudgel. Then I made a tower, with crenellations to prevent spiders. That lasted for a while, until a creeper came to life within and climbed up to the top to get me. I spent a few weeks underground recuperating. Then I moved on to a new island. Skeletons ambushed me underground. I moved to the desert. Got mobbed by zombies after wandering too far. And so the story goes. Something will happen here, and then I'll be moving on. There really is nothing tying me down anywhere. No hope for rescue, no hope for escape."

Miner turned away, trying to hide a tear.

Archer sat down next to her on a mud bench.

"I woke up next to a beautiful ocean. I was filled with happiness after seeing the wide world for me to live off of. The only downside was the loneliness. I hunted, I played, I lazed around. I made a boat, floated around for a while, saw a lot of different things. I found a forest, right here. I made a treehouse, decided to stay. And then you happened, and I'm still trying to decide what to do."

"You could always stay with me." Miner said. "It would be stupid not to. I mean, sometimes, I don't believe my luck. Another person, of the opposite gender?"

Archer looked at her. "I still think its a dream sometimes. Like when I kissed you. And when I slept in your bed- That was nice."

Miner looked back into Archer's eyes.

"I know its kind of a foregone conclusion, I mean, you like me, I like you, we're young, full of energy, and desperate for contact, but do you want to- Oh gosh, I don't know how to say this. You know what, forget this society bullshit. We're the only two people in this world. Want to have sex?"

Archer smiled his classic smile, and said, "I was wondering when you'd ask. Yes."

"Right now?", She asked, looking at the ground.

"Don't you have to do something about the wheat first?"

"Yeah. I'll get working on that.", She said, getting up and opening a gate. She closed it behind her, and started hitting rows of wheat with her hoe, bundling them and planting seeds in their empty spots.

When she was done, she motioned to Archer and headed down the set of stairs. Archer followed.

She tossed her pack next to her workbench and looked to Archer.

"How do you think we should do this?",Archer asked.

"Like this.", Miner said, and kissed him.

**LEMON BELOW THIS LINE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.**

Archer returned the kiss, and Miner held his head closer. Archer put his fingers in her soft hair, stroking it as she pushed her tongue out, into his mouth. He went along with it, fingers still entangled in her hair, feeling the silkiness of her strands. Archer grunted, and Miner pushed him to the bed.

He landed with a thump, with Miner on top of him. She kissed him one last time, and sat up on top of him, pulling her shirt off. She put her hands at the hem of Archer's shirt, and he put his arms facing out, letting Miner pull his shirt off and throw it where hers had gone. Then she leant back in and kissed him.

His skin was warm against hers, and his hands were on her toned back, moving in a gentle caress, nimbly moving from the knot of her breast bindings to the waistband of her jeans.

Miner stopped pushing with her tongue and let Archer take over, his tongue now in her mouth. He shifted his hands to the knot where the strip of cloth that bound her breasts was tied and undid it in a little movement. She sat up again, hot weight of her body pressing upon Archer's very apparent need.

Archer looked up at her there, on top of him, her breasts hanging free. They were larger than he had expected, but not gigantic. More than he could fit in one hand though, as he found when he placed his hands upon her soft assets, squeezing and moving them.

Miner gasped as he let his thumbs brush her nipples, already erect and straining against his hands. He took one in between his index and thumb and rolled it gently, back and forth. She let herself go limp, and all of a sudden, her chest was in contact with Archer's face. Archer enjoyed her fragrance for a second, before dragging his tongue in between her breasts, playing around, then flipping himself on top of her and unbuttoning his pants, pulling them off awkwardly.

Miner did the same, balling her pants up and throwing them where their shirts lay. She forced Archer back into his original position below her and took his undergarments off, sending them flying like all the other pieces of clothes. She shed her panties and looked down at Archer's member.

It was hardened already, and reminded her of Archer himself. If you were to pick a defining characteristic, it was long and thin, but not unnaturally so.

She looked at Archer. He looked back at her. Her decision was apparent on her face, and he nodded.

Letting out a big breath, she breathed in and descended on it.

It went past every barrier within her, filling her from below, throbbing inside her. It was an easy pass, and she barely felt the tear of her virginal barrier. She raised up again, knees bending, then dropped again. This time, she felt a jolt of pleasure go up her spine. It was amazing. She did it again and again, with a wild ferocity, mashing herself deeper and deeper on him every time, making him gasp or groan every time she came down like a valkyrie upon his member.

She sped up faster and faster, sliding up and down upon him, bouncing like a slime, up and down, up and down, until finally, Archer couldn't hold himself anymore and let himself go, just as Miner felt herself contract upon him, orgasming hard on his member, which started to shoot his seed out, into her womb. She could feel its warmth inside her, and she savored the last few seconds of pleasure, before feeling her limbs lose their strength as she collapsed upon him. She rolled over a bit, letting his softening member drop out, still leaking his semen.

"Oh my.", Miner gasped. "What have I done?


	6. Chapter 6

Discoveries: Chapter 6

By TitianiumBlossom

_**(A/N:The end. May be picking up a new series, like Advance Wars. A friend of mine started a series, but never managed to get it anywhere and ended up deleting it. Hope you liked what I did here. This chapter is really just to provide a bit of closure.)**_

After their short tryst, they lay dazed on the bed, bathing in the light coming in from the windows.

Then Miner sat up. She looked at the bare chested Archer next to her in the bed. He was absentmindedly moving his toes and dazedly smiling lightly. She got up off the bed and jumped into the waterfall, heading to the pool at the bottom. Sweat had already dried to her skin, not to mention a few other things.

She submerged her head under, and was washing her hair when she felt the splash next to her and a wave wash over her. It was Archer.

She resurfaced. He smiled.

"You know I love you, right?", He asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah. And you know I do too?", She asked, following his precedent.

"I never doubted it for a second."

They finished up the bath and went back to the living terrace, where they sorted through their clothes and put them back on. Archer helped Miner make bread from the wheat that they had, and then she brought the loot from the Nether.

The red rock didn't do anything. The glowing powder, however, could be compacted into a cube just like the glowstone it had been harvested from. She immediately took it upstairs to the farm area and affixed it on a pole near a field.

In many ways, they returned to life as usual. It was just that now they slept in the same bed and were happier.

Miner never questioned why the one in a million chance happened. Archer never dared to mention it. After all, the best luck is usually followed by the worst.

It couldn't be said that they grew old together, but certainty, they grew up for a while in this pattern, going on trips by boat, or building summer houses when they got tired of the pattern. The farm on top of the mountain was supplemented by one underground, the mine carts became coal powered ones. They went back to the netherworld, and made a fortress, and sometimes went out at night and killed the monsters and put down torches and glowstone.

They dug a moat around the mountain, making a sort of island, so no monsters could get near them.

A few days later, they made a tower, with an alternating pattern of glowstone and flaming netherrack.

They almost forgot about it, but then one day, Miner vomited. She didn't want to call it morning sickness, but Archer kept a closer eye on her from that day forward. It continued, but it could have just been food poisoning, or a disease or something else.

And then one afternoon as they were relaxing in the afternoon, they saw something at the horizon. Maybe it was a ship, maybe it was an island formed by volcanic eruption, but there was something out there...

And just knowing that made everything better.


	7. Notice

The Sequel to Discoveries, Exploring is now published. Expect faster updates in the summer.


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